From Rain to Romance Working title
by darksharkthing
Summary: It's a story i wrote for my friend for her birthday about her and Tezuka Kunimitsu. D A young girl is travelling alone...but when she gets found, she couldnt have dreamed of what would happen to her.


-1

The merciless wind pierced her pale skin, shrieking and howling in desperation. The rain hammered down harshly upon her back, as she silently pulled up the hood of her dark blue anorak. She trudged on, her purple hair flying wildly around her delicate features and sticking to her face from the beating rain. She had been walking for hours. She was tired, her legs were aching and her fingers and toes were numb from the excruciating cold. She wanted to stop. She felt like she couldn't go on any longer. She stumbled down the rock strewn pathway down to the main road. As she neared the roadside, she could see a bright light emerging from the distance. A sudden gust of wind gushed down from the sky and knocked her off her feet. She slid down the muddy precipice and fell ruggedly through the thorny hedge. She tumbled into the road. Her head hit the pavement. The last thing she saw before she blacked out, was a car stop in the road before her. The intense lights blinding her, the swish opening of a car door and two feet sleekly emanating from the interior. Then…darkness.

She awoke. Her vision was blurred. She delicately rubbed her emerald fatigued eyes. Looking around, all she could see was the inside of a very minimal flat. There was hardly any light in the room. The only light visible, was slithering though the crack at the side of the dull brown blind. She clutched the blanket to her chest. Afraid of her environment. She smelt the sweet scent of jasmine and hibiscus escaping from the sheets that she was enclosed in. Feeling more comfortable, she decided to try and find her rescuer.

Still clasping the blanket, she tiptoed across the silent hallway, her footsteps echoing quietly along the shadowed walls. She was nervous. Clammy. Worried. She had no idea who it was that had peeled her from the road.

She could hear the clicks of a keyboard. Still walking down the corridor. She noticed several pictures of a appealing man in a tennis uniform, and a tennis team. Numerous images lined the hallway as she walked down.

She followed the sounds of the typing. She saw a door. Slightly open. She peeked through the crack between the door and the doorframe. Her slender fingers traced the outline of the frame. Her gaze fell onto a figure hunched over a computer desk. His face lined and furrowed with concentration as he typed unblinkingly. The girl assumed that this was the person who had looked after her. She wanted to say thanks. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated what he had done. But she couldn't move. She was fixated on the man who was only a matter of feet away from him. Her eyes widened as she looked him up and down, from his thinly rimmed spectacles and luscious brown hair, to his smooth manly hands flickering over the keyboard.

Suddenly, he leaned back. He flexed his muscles and shook his head. His hair waving wildly like wispy tendrils. He cracked his knuckles. He pushed his chair back. Left the computer desk and made for the door. Still unable to move, the girl clung even tighter to the blanket. The door opened with a loud creak. She backed up against the wall. Hoping that she wouldn't be noticed. Sure that the volume of her breathing would give her away for sure. She tried to hold her breath. Her teeth clenched and her eyes closed tightly, she waited to be found.

"I see that you're awake now then?" The male voice was strict and brusque. But somehow, comforting. His deep brown eyes were penetrating hers. She felt lost in them. They were stern but kind. "Th..thanks for erm..everything…" Was the most she managed to stutter. There were so many questions she wanted answered, but there was something dominant about this man that made her feel like she just wanted to follow everything he said.

He gestured to the bathroom. "I know it isn't much. But it's home. I washed your clothes and left them in there for you. You may take a shower if you like. If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask." He said nothing else. The girl suddenly found her voice. She whispered, "who are you?" His eyebrows arched. "My name, is Tezuka Kunimitsu. That is all you need to know for now Gitana. By the way. A good piece of advice for you. Never let your guard down." The pure austerity of the way he said this sentence rendered her speechless. She didn't even stop to think how he knew her name.

Gitana had never felt such benefits of a warm shower as she did that day. She hummed to herself as she massaged the shampoo into her hair. She could feel a stinging in her leg, but she ignored it. Because only then, did it dawn upon her that Tezuka knew who she was. Confused, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. She rubbed her hair with the towel until it was acceptably dry, and she looked into the mirror. In the corner of the mirror, she could see her clothes neatly stacked in a pile. She pulled her clothes on as quickly as she could, and combed her hair. Sidling down the corridor, she tried once again to locate Tezuka to find out how he knew who she was.

She found him in the minimally decorated kitchen making coffee. She was so intimidated of him, but there was something about him that for some strange reason made him irresistible. She tiptoed into the kitchen.

"I won't bite you know." He said simply, without looking up. It was as if he could just feel her presence. Suddenly, it felt like her clothes were constricting her, she loosened the collar of her shirt.

"I just wanted to thank you again for everything you've done for me. Most people would have just left me there. But you were different. Unlike most people you actually cared enough to look after me. I'm eternally grateful to you. So if you ever need anything, I'll try my best." Gitana tried to smile. But there was something about the look on his face that made her feel like she should just stand there and wait for his reply. But this reply took a while to emerge from his lips.

"Well, before we get to anything like that, we need to make sure that you are definitely okay and not coming down with any ailment, fever, injury and the like." He seemed genuinely caring, even if his demeanour was ever so slightly daunting. He stepped out of the room into a room across the corridor. "Come in here." He said. Obediently, she submitted to him. She trotted after him to the room.

He opened a case, and pulled out some medical implements. He lay them down gently on the bed. He patted the sheets. She sat down. "You might have seen some of the photographs in the hall of me playing tennis. Well, that very sport caused me to injure my arm on more than one occasion. It got so often, that I decided that it would be best to be able to learn how to look after myself after injury than to repeatedly keep visiting the hospital. So I took a first aid course. So don't worry, I know what I'm doing." His unsmiling face looked intently into hers, once again she felt like she was being swallowed by the chocolate pools that were his eyes. She snapped back to herself.

"Its okay…I trust you." She said as she serenely placed herself on the bed. He took her temperature, checked for any bruises and measured her pulse. He knelt down beside her and checked her legs.

"I'm afraid, that it looks like you've fractured the bone on your shin. You're going to have to rest for a few weeks." He looked at her earnestly. "I think we'd better inform your family that you're ill do that they can come and pick you up." He snapped the bag shut.

"No! Wait… you can't. I can't go back, please let me stay here a while! I can't go back. I just…can't." She broke down. Miserably, she lay on the bed silently, pearly tears trickling down her wan cheeks. She turned away. She hadn't cried in front of people for years. Normally, she was great at coping with distress, but just recently, things had become too much. Everything made her well up.

She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Look, I can't just keep you here. Your family don't know where you are. They'll be worried. I should at least tell them that you're safe." Hen sat down beside her on the bed. He rubbed her shoulders. Gitana gathered herself together.

"There's no family to tell. There was a car crash, and my parents were unconscious. I was taken from the car when I was only seven years old. I haven't seen my parents since. I don't know if they're dead, alive…I don't know anything about them. All I know, is what they looked like, because of a picture of us that was in my baby bag." She left the room and came back with her rucksack. She rifled through it until she found a dark purple tin. Slightly dented, but with intricate silver swirls on it, spelling out her name. It was locked. She reached inside her jumper and pulled out a necklace, and pulled the key from the chain. She pushed it gently into the keyhole. She waited for the click. Shielding the box from Tezuka's view, she gently fingered the treasures in her box. She traced her fingers over her valuables. The tears beginning to re-emerge from her eyes. She blinked them back. She felt stronger. She picked out an envelope and slid it out from between the sheets. Carefully, she opened it. She passed the picture to Tezuka. He looked at it. He could see a small family. There was a dog, it was small, white and excited. There was also a man. He had a strong manly face. A slight stubble on his chin, kind eyes, short brown hair, partially balding on the top. Tezuka could tell that he was tall because he sat a few inches higher than the woman. She was small, vibrant eyes, a cheerful aura about her, her liquorice hair licking her shoulders. Between them, was sat a little girl. She was trying to catch bubbles that the man was blowing. The little topknot in her sandy ginger hair sticking up haphazardly. Tezuka's eyes lingered over the smiling faces of these people. Gitana scanned him. There wasn't a shred of emotion in his face. He passed back the photograph.

"I can still remember what my mother smelt like." Gitana whispered. "Toast, talcum powder and her favourite perfume. I remember trying to take that perfume for myself when I was little, because I always wanted to be just like her. I spilt it all over the floor. Mother just laughed. Father came in and scooped me up in his arms and called me his "little tornado," saying I broke everything in the house. He chuckled along with my mother. That's the only memory I have of them. I can't even remember the crash. But orphanage told me about it when I grew up. But they didn't tell me where my parents were. They never told anyone where their parents were or what had happened to them." She stopped to breathe. She hadn't said so much to someone. Ever.

Tezuka for the first time, showed a small amount of understanding. "You know, when I was younger, I lost my parents to a fire. Or at lest, that was what I was informed. Like you. I don't really know what happened to them. But what I do know, is that for the most of my life, I've been looked after by a kind couple." He sighed. "We're more similar to each other than I could have ever imagined to be with anyone." His put his head in his hands. Gitana gazed at his luscious brown hair. Watching it glimmer in the dim lamplight. He drew himself closer to Gitana and looked her in the eyes. He held her hands.

"Look, if I let you stay here, you have to promise to not leave the house unless I say, and you stay in bed and rest that leg." He turned to look at the injury. Turning back, he cupped her chin gently, "okay?" Gitana thought she saw his mouth twitch. But she convinced herself that she was just seeing things.

"Okay."

The past 3 weeks had gone by in a haze, Before Gitana knew it, her leg was healed. But she'd become so adjusted to living in this environment that she didn't want to leave. She sighed. She ambled into the kitchen to pour two glasses of orange juice. She pushed the cold glass rim to her lips. It clinked on her small pearly teeth. She walked into Tezuka's study.

She remembered three weeks ago. She remembered when she stood on this exact spot. Scared. Nervous. Worried. A feeling of utter stupidity flowed through her. She couldn't believe she'd been so frightened of him. So he was stern, strict and unemotional. He still had something about him that she couldn't get out of her head.

She creaked open the door. "You know, I think it would be a good idea to oil this door. I've been here three weeks and its worse than the creaking in my Nan's joints when she tried to walk down the stairs. She chuckled to herself as she placed down the icy glass of orange juice on a mat. She watched the condensation trickle down the side.

"You know, I think it would be a good idea if you knocked before you came in." His voice seemed colder and more stern than usual. He quickly shut down the webpage that he was on. Gitana looked hurt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise." She could feel her emotions running wild again. There was pain and anguish on her face that Tezuka hadn't seen before. He couldn't understand why she took everything she said so harshly. He stood up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm just really irritated at the moment, and you just walked in at a bad time." Then he did something that surprised Gitana even more. He left his computer desk. He stood before her. "I'm sorry. I know I can be a pain sometimes." He held out his arms and held her closely in an embrace. She nestled her head in the nook of his shoulder. She breathed in his manly odour. A mix of deodorant, coffee and the same jasmine and hibiscus scent that she smelt on the sheets on that first day that she was here.

She hadn't felt so comfortable for a long time. She felt that she could just stand there forever. Clinging to him fiercely.

He brushed his cheek across the top of her smooth violet hair. Something clicked inside him. He looked down at her. She looked up at him. Their eyes met. The emerald and chocolate melted together. Before either of them knew what was happening, instinct kicked in. They kissed. She gasped for breath.

"Remember when I first met you… you said to me, "never let your guard down." Well…it looks like you finally have." She smiled at him. He kissed her again. Embracing the smoothness of her lips.

"Well…it looks like you may have been right there." He let go. Gitana twirled her hair around her finger. Tezuka went into the study…winked at her…and closed the door. He sank into his chair. He smiled.


End file.
